A Time to Give Up
by CarelessWhispers13
Summary: Here he was, dressed to a T, smile on his face, and completely and totally miserable inside. Here he was, watching the love of his life meet his best friend at the alter, and there was nothing he could do but smile, and be happy for the both of them. It was time to give up the hope he'd had about running off with her in his arms. Unrequited Riku/Kairi. Small bit of Rion at the end.


**Well I can't tell you whether I think this is good or not, but lonely me writes very lonely things, and I want to share some of that with you. Because maybe some of you out there are lonely and want to read something like this. Who knows. I hope you enjoy.**

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His parents had raved on and on about how beautifully the chapel had been decorated. His friend, Axel had whistled when the bride had walked down the aisle. His mentor, Mickey had even shown up and congratulated the couple with a twinkling eye and a wide grin. The groom was immaculately made up; spikey hair gelled into shining, precise points. The groomsmen had all looked dapper in perfectly ironed suits, including himself. The bridesmaids had all danced down the aisle in matching dresses of some sort of shade of blue that he couldn't pronounce. And the bride. The bouncing, glowing, beautiful bride. She stole the show, she really did. Both she and the groom seemed so perfectly happy and at ease with each other, and all of the wedding guests seemed overjoyed for the couple.

And he hated it. He hated how happy she seemed with him and how obliviously delirious with joy the groom was. The groom had even spoken out in his toast at the reception about how _lucky_ and _grateful_ he was to have gotten her. Yeah, every guy in the audience could attest to _that_. Every male in the reception hall would willingly admit that the bride was one of the most attractive women they'd met. And she was marrying the wrong man. She was giving herself away to so goofy, go-lucky kid. A kid that was his best friend. Well they were hardly kids, anymore. Twenty-one, twenty-two. Axel was twenty-four. But he felt as if the bride were marrying a seventeen year old. Not somebody who could legally drink and vote and order something from an adult store without parental supervision. Riku was watching the love of his life go from Kairi, the girl who loved to go out and party and go storm chasing, and turn into Mrs. Sora Hikari.

It wasn't like he hated his friend, either. Sora was still his friend, and he knew that people like Sora were needed in the world. Optimism, a natural sense of justice, even things as simple as a sense of humor. He knew that Sora had admirable traits. But he'd been the brunette's best friend since they were four. He knew all of the undesirable traits as well. Sora was childish, he told jokes at inappropriate times, and he still played video games for Christ's sake! Riku had spent the last ten years pining for Kairi's attention, always being that friend to cry on and to listen to her complain about the world. He knew her better than any of her girlfriends and he knew exactly what to bring her when she was sick. But apparently Sora knew her better. Because Sora had never been able to do anything without outdoing Riku. Always winning in sparring classes, getting the top grades in school(not that Riku cared very much about that), charming every parent of every girl on the planet. And now, here he was, getting the ultimate one-up. Marrying the girl of his dreams, leaving Riku in a sea of women that were pretty, but none of them would ever be Her.

Now here he was, collar undone, post-reception, slamming down whiskey at midnight. He hadn't wanted to stay for more than five minutes of the reception, but Axel had persuaded him to stay, and with Kairi urging him to stay around 'just for her', he could hardly resist. But now he was free to mope and feel as sorry for himself as he wanted.

"Aye, buddy, long time no see." He heard a painfully familiar voice greet from behind him. Riku glance behind him to confirm that it was in fact Axel, and then turned back around. "hey, now, nobody gets to drown their sorrows in alcohol without me." The obnoxious red head announced as he pulled a chair up beside Riku. The silver haired man sighed and ran his index finger along the edge of his glass. "Did you want anything from me or are you just here to bother me more." Axel snickered and told the bartender to bring him a drink before answering, "Nah, I just didn't get to say anything to you before you left the reception." "Sorry." Riku offered, and presented his empty glass to the bartender.

"Hey…look, dude. I understand today was a hard day for you-" Riku snorted and cut his friend off. "This day was hard for me? _Hard_ for me? Are you fucking kidding me right now? I haven't had to act so god damned happy about something in my life. And I wasn't even happy. At all. Not for him, or for her…" The bartender returned with the men's drinks and set the down before silently walking away. Axel puffed a stream of air out and shrugged, "Riku, I don't know what to tell ya." Riku gripped the whiskey glass harder. "You don't have to say anything! I don't give a shit what you have to say, or what anyone has to say! I just watched the love of my life marry my best friend! God, he doesn't even deserve her! He's still a kid, he can't be taken seriously as an adult at all!" Axel cleared his throat, which Riku blatantly ignored.

"She's absolutely perfect, man…she's what every guy dreams of having. And that overly optimistic, annoying, whiney idiot gets to grow old with her!" "Now wait a minute, kid!" Axel snapped, "Nobody here is saying that Sora is perfect. He sure as hell doesn't seem like it to me, anyways. But before you go acting like you're so high and mighty about this think about yourself. You're not perfect, either. If you really need examples of it I can give you some right now: You're arrogant, you turn everything into a competition, and you can't stand it when anyone is better than you at anything! It's like some crazy superiority complex or something!" Axel took a long gulp of his drink before Riku could say, "Well, fuck you, too, buddy." Axel groaned, "Oh, come on, dude. Don't act like I just shot your dog."

"Well, sorry!" Riku exclaimed, slamming his hand down on the counter, "Sorry that I hate hearing about how much of a shit person I am!" "Now wait a minute-" "No, you wait a minute, you don't think I know all this stuff? You think I don't know that I'm obsessed with winning? That I want myself to be the best? Well I do, Axel, and you know what the worst part of the whole damn thing is? It's that no matter how hard I want to be the best, I never am. I'm always second place, an honorable mention. Because my best friend is the best. He got the girl. The one girl I would have settled down with…and now she's gone. The last thing she said to me before they left was 'I love you'. Do you know how much that hurt?!"

Riku placed his head in his hands and tried to keep from weeping. Not tonight. No matter how much it hurt him to see her with someone else, he wouldn't let it hurt him that much. Axel set his hand gingerly on his friend's shoulder. "Hey…Riku, listen. I felt the same way when I lost my friend, Reno. Remember him?" Riku vaguely remembered a red head similar to Axel from half a decade ago. "Well I thought I'd never find a friend like him. I really didn't. But then I met Roxas. And he's my best friend. I know that the girl of your dreams isn't going to walk into this bar tonight, but she's going to show up. She'll come out of nowhere and take your breath away. At least that's how I felt when Larxene and I met. I mean, that was after _years _of being shot down, having my heart broken. But Riku, I fully believe that Kairi wasn't the woman of your dreams, you know why? Because to the woman of your dreams, you're going to be the winner, you're going to be number one, and none of your friends will be able to change that, got it memorized?"

Riku glanced up at his best friend, crazy, fire-red hair, tattoos under his eyes. His best friend was crazy, but he knew that it was the crazy only found in the most genius of people. "You really think so?" Riku asked, smiling in spite of himself. Axel nodded, "I wouldn't be blowing smoke up your ass for the hell of it." Riku snorted and drank the last few drops of whiskey out of his glass. "Hey…sorry I was so, um, emotional. You know I'm never like that-" "Unless you're drunk?" Axel supplies, and Riku frowned, "No, that wasn't it! God, Axel, I've only had two of these." Axel raised an eyebrow but before he could reply a voice from behind the counter said, "Actually, you've had about five." Both Axel and Riku turned to look at a short woman, black hair chopped off just at her chin, bright, mischievous eyes. Riku stared at her dumbfounded while Axel began to laugh.

"Axel, shut up!" Riku snapped, and then turned back to the bartender, "How would you know?" The woman snorted and placed both hands on the counter on either side of her, "Because I've been filling your shot glass and listening to you blubber about you one true love running off with your best friend for the past half hour." Riku glared at her while Axel laughed harder. "Excuse, me, but I didn't 'blubber', there were no tears from these eyes!" "Yeah, yeah, calm down before you hurt yourself." She said as she leaned heavily onto the counter. Riku grinned at her, and tried not to notice how her shirt revealed more cleavage than he would have otherwise guessed she had.

"She's feisty, I like that." Axel remarked, crossing his arms behind his head. "Axel, you're engaged!" Riku exclaimed, whacking his friend on the back. Axel winked at the bartender, who rolled her eyes and said to Riku, "Don't worry, Silver-Locks, Flames here isn't really my type." Axel snickered to Riku's left and he grinned at the bartender, "Then what is your type?" The bartender seemed to think about this for a moment before saying, "I don't really have a type. I guess I just love who I love. But I think I have more types that I don't like than I actually do like." Riku nodded thoughtfully, and glanced from Axel to the girl in front of him, "So…do you think I'm your type?" Axel hooted and the bartender grinned down at the counter. "Well, guys who can't get over their friends' wives aren't normally my type, no." Riku frowned and snapped, "Did you have to listen in?"

"Dude, look around you, nobody else is at the bar right now, everyone else is out at a table." She said plainly, and for the first time realized that he was in fact alone at the bar. "And plus you talk really loudly." She added. Riku scoffed and remarked, "But didn't you hear? Thanks to Axel, here, I'm getting over her!" The raven haired woman set her chin on her hands, "I more than anyone knows that it takes longer than a few minutes to get over someone you've loved for so long." She said, a hint of sadness in her tone. Riku slouched in his chair, she was right. "You're probably right." He admitted, frowning. He watched her chew her bottom lip before offering, "But…I think I could help you with that, a little bit, anyways." He sat up straight again and smiled, "Really?" this was real. This wasn't love at first sight and this wasn't a sure shot to the alter. But it was a step forward. And he hadn't taken a step forward in ten years.

The woman nodded and extended her right hand to him, "I'm Xion, it's very nice to meet you."

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**Once again, I don't know if it's that stupendous, but I'd like some feedback on it, please? Have a great day!**


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